Chapter 514: Yongzheng's Imperial Seal
Chapter 514: Yongzheng's Imperial Seal
The day after Lu Jiajin returned, he sent the two children to primary school and accompanied Lu Hongjun to see Dr. Zhao, an experienced bone specialist who also treated external injuries and had over forty years of medical experience.
Lu Jiajin had sustained several injuries while working in the mines, leaving him with some old wounds. Dr. Zhao first took Lu Jiajin's pulse and then examined his body, assuring him that none of the injuries had damaged his bones and that he would fully recover without any long-term complications.
Dr. Zhao prescribed some medicine for his injuries and said, "I'm not very skilled in treating underlying health issues. For that, you should visit Dr. He. Everyone who has been to him has nothing but praise."
Lu Jiajin was familiar with Dr. He, the same doctor who had treated Jiaxin's health. He was indeed very skilled. Jiaxin had suffered a loss of energy, and after a year of taking the medicinal meals prescribed by Dr. He, she had made a full recovery.
Having a car at his disposal made it convenient for Lu Jiajin and his uncle to visit Dr. He immediately. They fetched the prescribed medicine and a medicine pot before returning home to prepare the concoction.
In the past, the smell of traditional Chinese medicine would have made him nauseous, but now he found it fragrant because it signified a path to his swift recovery.
The morning was spent fetching and brewing the medicine, and it was only after lunch that he visited the homes of his two friends from the mine. One was named Luo Guangyuan, and the other, Sun Qi. Lu Jiajin decided to look for Luo Guangyuan first, but he never expected that Luo's wife had already remarried and was now carrying her new husband's child. As for Sun Qi, he was an only child and had also married and had a child. However, he had divorced before going abroad. His child was living with Sun's mother, who was overjoyed to learn that her son was still alive and insisted on doing whatever it took to ransom him.
Lu Jiajin spoke to Sun Qi's mother, "The captors have given us a day to respond. If you want to save your son, you must prepare the money within two days."
It was no easy task to come up with 20,000 green dollars within three days! But driven by the desire to rescue her son, Sun's mother agreed, expressing her determination to find a way to gather the funds.
As Lu Jiajin left Sun Qi's house, he felt heavy-hearted. While the Sun family was willing to raise funds to ransom their son, Luo Guangyuan was gone forever. He wished he could gather the money himself, but when he went to the foreigners, he had only left 50,000 yuan behind. Now, with his own health issues and the need to support two children, expenses were piling up, and he felt powerless.
After taking care of this matter, he returned home to brew his medicine. By the time he had finished taking the medicine, it was already time to pick up the children. Not feeling like cooking, he brought the two children to Lu Jiaguang's place for dinner.
Upon seeing Lu Jiajin's heavy mood, Lu Jiaguang asked, "What's wrong? Did the doctor say that your health can't be restored?"
Lu Jiajin shook his head and shared the situation of his two friends, "Sun Qi should be able to come back, but as for Luo Guangyuan... he might never return."
Lu Jiaguang said, "Two hundred thousand green dollars... how many families in Sijiucheng can afford that? Do you think the Sun family can gather that amount within a day?"
Lu Jiajin wasn't too concerned about that, "My brother-in-law only asked me to handle this within two days. He didn't say that we have to give him the money within two days. We can discuss this with him tomorrow, and I'm sure we can get an extension."
Lu Jiaguang patted him on the shoulder to comfort him, "Don't overthink it. As long as we've done our best, that's enough."
If it weren't for Jiaxin, Lu Jiajin wouldn't have been able to return himself, let alone Sun Qi. Without their help, Sun's mother would have closed her eyes never knowing where her son's remains lay.
After dinner, Lu Jiajin brought the two children back to his place. Unexpectedly, two people were waiting for them at the door—one was Sun Qi's mother, and the other was Sun Qi's elder sister.
Lu Jiajin invited them in and was about to pour them some water when Sun Qi's mother stopped him.
Sun's mother took out a red lacquer wooden box, about the size of two adult palms, from her cloth bag and placed it on the table in the main room. "It's difficult to gather two hundred thousand green dollars in a day. I heard that your sister likes antiques. She'll definitely be interested in this. We're not asking for much; we just want my son, Qi'er, to come back safely."
Upon hearing Sun's mother's words, Lu Jiajin immediately opened the box and saw a piece of jade carving inside.
Sun's elder sister explained, "This is Emperor Yongzheng's imperial seal, a white jade seal with nine dragon-shaped knobs. It's priceless. If it weren't for my brother's life at stake, our family would never part with this."
Although Lu Jiajin hadn't read many books, he knew that items used by emperors were extremely valuable and worth a lot of money. He looked at Sun's elder sister with a puzzled expression and asked, "If what you say is true, and this is indeed Emperor Yongzheng's imperial seal, we could easily sell it for two hundred thousand green dollars."
Sun's elder sister nodded and said, "Yes, if we were willing to sell it, we could even get a million green dollars for it, and we'd get the money immediately. But can two hundred thousand green dollars really ensure my brother's safe return?"
Lu Jiajin couldn't guarantee that, but he understood what Sun's elder sister was implying. They wanted to sell the jade carving to Jiaxin for two hundred thousand green dollars and then have her ensure Sun Qi's safe return.
Lu Jiajin shook his head and said, "My sister can't guarantee that Sun Qi will return unharmed."
Sun's mother quickly interjected, "We don't need him to be unharmed. As long as Qi'er comes back alive, that's enough. Jiajin, please ask your sister to help us. If this jade carving isn't enough, I can find other things to make up for it. We'll do whatever it takes."
Lu Jiajin also wanted to save Sun Qi, and after thinking for a moment, he said, "Please wait here. I'll call my sister now and ask if she's willing to take the jade carving."
The mother and daughter naturally had no objections.
Lu Jiajin asked the two children to go back to their room to do their homework, and then he went to Lu Jiaguang's house, "Brother, I need to make an important call to Jiaxin. I'll use your study."
Lu Jiaguang knew that the call was not suitable for the children to overhear, so he let Lu Jiajin use his study.
Lu Jiaxin was doing yoga when she received the call from the maid about Lu Jiajin. She found it strange but still took the call. It was unusual for him to call so late unless it was something important.
When Lu Jiaxin heard his voice, Lu Jiajin told her about the jade carving and Sun's mother's request, "I don't know if the jade carving is real or not, but I don't think they would deceive us when it concerns Sun Qi's life."
Upon hearing that it was an imperial seal, Lu Jiaxin became interested. "He Bin is currently in Sijiucheng. Take the seal to him tomorrow, and he'll find someone to appraise it. If it's genuine, I'll ask Old Geng to make another trip to ensure your friend's son returns safely."
If it were fake, Old Geng would have left without her saying a word, but the probability of that was low.
"Okay."
The next day, at noon, He Bin called Lu Jiaxin about the seal, "Boss, I had three experts appraise the seal, and it's genuine. One of the experts mentioned that this particular emperor had five jade seal carvings, and this is one of them. There are clear records about its creation."
Lu Jiaxin acknowledged with an 'en' and said, "Give my fifth brother 30,000 green dollars. Also, tell him that the seal is worth 100,000 green dollars. The additional 50,000 is for me to hire someone else to ensure that everything goes smoothly. I'll give the ransom money directly to Old Geng. With such a large sum of foreign currency, he might not be able to leave the country."
"Okay."
(End of Chapter)
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